


Better Off Dead

by SophiaHawkins



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Dr. Daniel Charles - Freeform, Gen, Hank Voight - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, Maggie Lockwood - Freeform, sevasey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29850531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaHawkins/pseuds/SophiaHawkins
Summary: Matt Casey had been missing for three days when Firehouse 51 responded to a call and found him unconscious in a hotel room, the victim of an unspeakable crime. Surviving his attack was bad enough, now he had to survive the recovery.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Better Off Dead

Matt Casey was missing. Nobody knew exactly when he'd gone missing. All anybody at Firehouse 51 knew was that the last time they saw or heard from him was when they went off last shift. The next day Herrmann had tried calling him to ask about taking over as acting lieutenant for a shift to get a feel for it for whenever the day came he got to put his rank to the test. There had been no answer. Nobody had thought anything about it, the guy had a construction business on the side, he was probably busy. Then Severide had tried calling, see if Casey was interested in going to Molly's for a drink, still no answer. He'd stopped by Casey's apartment, the truck wasn't there but that didn't necessarily mean anything since he'd mentioned taking it to the shop. He tried the door, it was locked and there was no answer. Kelly put his training to the test and kicked the door open, searched the whole apartment, no sign of Casey anywhere.

He'd reached out to everybody from 51 to see if anybody had heard from him, nobody had. Trying not to panic, he'd reached out to Antonio and asked for help. Cops came to the apartment, checked everything, searched his computer, turned up nothing. The next 24 hours were a tense wait for everybody, by the time they went on shift again, the only update from the police was that Casey's pickup had been found abandoned under a bridge five miles from his home. There had been no forensic sign of a struggle, just the driver's side door left open and the battery completely dead, latent prints were lifted off the door handle from the inside and out and the steering wheel, though nobody was too optimistic any prints but Casey's would turn up. Chaplain Orlovsky stopped by the firehouse to join them in prayer that Matt would be found alive and well soon, and offer his services to anybody who wanted to talk.

A few hours into shift, the bells had gone off, there was a suspected fire at a hotel in one of the seedier parts of the city. Though everybody was aware of what they had to do, none of them could put their sole attention in the job at hand, everybody still wanted to know what had happened to their lieutenant.

The run down hotel was six stories tall and smoke was pouring out from some busted windows on the 5th and 6th floors. Some people had already gotten out but the manager explained there were still some people inside who hadn't evacuated, nobody knew for sure how many but the estimate was 10. Additional ambos were called in and 61 was on standby for the first victims brought out. Entering the lobby they saw smoke trailing down the stairs, the elevators were an obvious dead end, though Otis went to the controls and brought them all down just to make sure nobody was stupid enough to actually try using them. Everybody else went up to the top two floors first to check for victims. They weren't able to find the source of the fire yet and guessed it must've started in the wiring, in which case they had no way of knowing how long it would be before the whole place was busting out in fires, but their priority right now was finding anybody still inside and getting them out to the paramedics. Everybody paired off to sweep the floors and check for victims. Tony and Capp swept the 4th floor, Herrmann and Mouch took the 3rd floor, Severide and Cruz checked the 2nd.

Kelly kicked in a locked door, "Fire department, call out!"

Cruz was across the hall, kicked in another door and called out in English and Spanish, no response. The rooms were empty, so they moved on.

"I got one!" Kelly called at the third door he kicked in.

There was a 20-something year old woman face down on the floor, barely responsive, only enough to cough. He and Cruz carried her to the stairs where EMTs were ready with a stair chair, got her strapped in and took her down, then they resumed their search. Over their radios they heard Herrmann announce they'd found five kids in one of the bathtubs and their mother was unresponsive on the bed, there was some medication on the nightstand so they weren't sure if she'd suffered smoke inhalation, or lapsed into a diabetic coma. There was a response from the EMTs that additional ambos were just pulling up and somebody would be with them soon to help carry her down, meanwhile Mouch was leading the kids down the stairs to the exit while Herrmann stayed with the woman and checked her vitals.

Otis reported in that they'd gotten all the elevators down to the lobby and there was nobody in them, small favors indeed.

"Smoke's getting thicker up here!" Herrmann called out on his radio, "let's finish sweeping and get out."

There was a crackle on the radio, the next thing they heard was Tony's voice.

"Severide, we found Casey!"

" _What_?" Kelly was sure he'd heard wrong.

"We found him on the 4th floor, he's unconscious, we're bringing him down!"

Severide felt his knees going weak, he replanted his feet to stand straight. He turned to Cruz and they looked at each other with a mutual expression of confusion, worry, and relief. They finished sweeping the 2nd floor and found no additional victims. Herrmann and Mouch reported the 3rd floor was also cleared. Severide went to the stairwell and saw Capp and Tony carrying Casey's unconscious body down the stairs.

"What happened?" he asked as they came down to the 2nd floor.

"I don't know," Capp shook his head, "he was on the floor next to the bed."

"There's a body up there," Tony said as they moved to the first floor stairs, "he's been dead for a while."

"Any idea who it is?"

Tony shook his head.

Severide ran alongside his men as they carried Casey through the front doors and lowered him onto a waiting backboard. Ambo 61 was already in-route to Med so another company would be taking him to the hospital. In the daylight they got a better look at Casey and he looked terrible, his face and hair were covered with soot and what skin wasn't covered with soot was pale and ashy, his clothes were a mess, he was barefoot, he was almost unrecognizable. He was put on oxygen and moved into the ambulance.

"Is the building clear?" Boden asked.

"DOA on the 4th floor," Tony said, "we probably got time to go back and bring it down, be easier for the ME to identify him while he's still got his skin on."

Boden looked at the smoke pouring out of the building and told them, "Five minutes, if you don't find him by then, get your assess out."

"Copy, Chief," Capp said.

Severide was right beside Boden and looked at him with wide questioning eyes.

"Go," Boden nodded towards the ambulance, "go."

Severide merely nodded and ran over to ride with Casey. The paramedics tending to him weren't familiar with him so Kelly filled them in on all of Matt's medical history that he could remember.

"How long till we reach Med?" he asked.

"ETA's 10 minutes," one of the paramedics told him.

Kelly looked down at his friend who looked like death ran him over, then backed up and tried again, and wondered aloud, "What the hell happened to you, Casey?"

* * *

"On my count, one, two, three."

Will Halstead and the attending staff moved Matt Casey from the gurney onto the exam table. The paramedics had taken him off oxygen for the time being, he was able to breathe on his own but was still largely non-responsive.

"Oh my God, Matt," Maggie said as she stepped into the room and snapped on a pair of gloves. "What happened?"

"Found unconscious in a fire," Will said as they started getting him hooked up to monitor.

"He's been missing for two days," Maggie told him. She looked him over and said, "Dr. Halstead, something's wrong."

That was obvious but Will wanted to know what specifically Maggie meant. "What do you mean?"

Maggie grabbed the collar of the shirt Casey was wearing, it pooled around his neck. "These clothes are at least one size too large, these aren't Matt's clothes."

"What's that?" Will asked as he saw something under the shirt collar on Casey's chest.

They cut off the shirt and saw a mess of bruises around his neck and on his chest, and on his arms, and...

"Ligature marks," Maggie gasped as she saw the purple bands of indention marks around his wrists.

Will noted that the jeans were also too big and rolled up the bottoms in cuffs to examine Casey's feet.

"Legs too," he said as he discovered the matching purple bands above the ankles.

"Oh my God," Maggie gasped as she looked him over, she looked up at Will with wide eyes and asked, "what the hell happened?"

"I don't know, but look at this," Will touched the soot on Casey's face and revealed a bruise hidden underneath it.

"Was Casey on the fire floor?"

"I don't think so."

"So where'd this come from?" Will asked, "it's like somebody intentionally tried to cover up the bruises."

Maggie shrugged, "It must've been from when the firefighters carried him out."

"But there's hardly any on the clothes," Will pointed out.

"That doesn't make sense," Maggie replied.

"Is somebody here who responded to the fire?" Will asked.

"Kelly is," Maggie answered.

"See if he knows anything about this."

* * *

"Kelly," Maggie walked out to the waiting room, "I need you to answer some questions about when you found Matt."

"Yeah, sure," Kelly nodded, "Whatever I can."

"Did you find Matt?" she asked.

"Uh no, I was two floors below, Capp and Tony found him."

"Was he conscious at the time?"

"No, he'd already inhaled a lot of smoke, Tony put his mask on him to get a couple hits off the oxygen, it didn't work."

"Did they say where they found him?" Maggie asked.

"In one of the hotel rooms on the floor by the bed, why?" Kelly asked.

"Just standard pain in the ass hospital protocol," Maggie answered.

"Has Casey woken up yet?"

"No, his lungs are cleared but he's still out cold," she told him.

"But he's gonna be okay, right?" Severide asked.

"That's what we want to make sure of," Maggie said, "just seeing if there was anything else we needed to check for."

* * *

"Kelly wasn't on the same floor where Casey was, Tony and Capp found him and carried him down to the ambo," Maggie told Will as she returned to the exam room.

"Where?"

"They said he was on the floor by the bed," Maggie said.

"Do you believe it?" Halstead asked her.

"I have a feeling you don't," she replied.

Will pointed to the purple marks on Casey's body, "These are unmistakable, somebody beat the hell out of Casey, and somebody had him tied up for an extended length of time."

"And _somebody_ got him dressed," Maggie said.

"In a set of clothes that aren't even his," Will remarked.

"You think whoever did that to him dressed him?" Maggie asked.

"What happened to the ones _he_ was wearing?" Will asked.

Maggie shrugged.

Will shook his head, "I think somebody dressed him who was trying to preserve some dignity for him."

Maggie's eyes widened, "The firemen?"

"Think about it, get him dressed, cover the bruises with soot, it at least gets him out of the scene with few questions asked," Will said. "The question is did whoever had him tied up in that hotel room _plan_ to get him out of there?"

"Or did the fire disrupt his plans?" Maggie finished the thought.

The two looked at each other hesitantly for a minute.

"You know we need the patient's consent to do a rape exam," Will said.

"Yes," Maggie answered.

"But any forensic evidence on his clothes is fair game since they're not even _his_ clothes and they'll be disposed of anyway," Will told her, "if these are his attacker's clothes, they may be able to lift some DNA from them, and find out who it is, and find out if he has any STDs we need to start Casey on meds for."

"Copy that, Doctor Halstead," Maggie said as she collected the shirt and jeans they'd cut off of Casey.

* * *

Kelly looked at Maggie with a puzzled expression, which quickly turned to outrage as he asked her, "What are you saying, Maggie?"

"Just that something about your men's story doesn't add up, it's very hard to believe that they simply found Casey as he was."

"Why's that?"

"Kelly, did you get a good look at Casey?"

Severide paused for a minute and answered, "No, first Capp and Tony were blocking the view, then the paramedics were working on him."

"Did the paramedics notice anything unusual?"

"They're from a different house, they don't know Casey."

"Kelly, Matt has heavy bruising all over his body, a contusion on the back of the head consistent with being blitzed from behind, and ligature marks on his wrists and ankles," Maggie told him.

" _What_?"

"Whoever got to him kept him tied to the bed at the hotel, and somebody got him dressed in clothes that probably belong to his attacker. Doctor Halstead is still examining him, but it's very likely that he was the victim of a sexual assault," Maggie explained.

"My God," Kelly tried to take all of it in.

"How long did it take when they got to Casey's floor for them to radio in that they found him?"

"We swept the floors for victims, Cruz and I were about done on 2 when Tony said they found him on 4. It took them a while to carry him down."

"When the cops come to question everyone, they're going to know that something doesn't add up," Maggie said, "so you better check with your men so everybody has their stories straight. If Voight's people are brought in on this, you _know_ they're going to figure it out."

Kelly nodded. "I will, thanks for the heads up. How's Matt doing?"

"Dr. Halstead is still examining him, he's severely dehydrated so we got an IV in him and are pushing fluids, when we know more I'll let you know," she told him.

Severide nodded in a dumbstruck manner, "Thanks, Maggie."

* * *

"What happened at the hotel?" Kelly asked his men when they parked themselves in chairs in the waiting room.

Tony looked at him, "What're you talking about, Severide?"

"The doctors _know_ something's wrong, what happened with Casey?" Kelly asked. "Why did you guys lie?"

Capp and Tony turned and looked at each other and shared a mutual expression that didn't tell Kelly anything.

"What is it?" he asked.

"We had to do something, Kelly, he wouldn't want everyone to see him like that," Capp told his lieutenant.

"Like what?"

"Whoever the bastard was that kidnapped Casey left him tied to that bed face down bare ass naked," Tony told him, "We got him untied, found some clothes, got him dressed, then radioed that we found him. One of our own, Kelly, the roof could've come down, we weren't going to bring him out like we found him."

Kelly nodded hesitantly. "How bad of shape was he in?"

"Bruised and bloody," Capp answered grimly, "somebody worked him over."

"God," Kelly hissed under his breath, "how can this be happening? What happened to him? When we left last shift, he was fine, _how_ did this happen? Who's responsible?"

"If the bastard's lucky, we'll _never_ find out," Tony said.

Kelly shook his head and looked like he was going to be sick.

"I have to see him," he said, "I have to see if he's going to be alright."

* * *

Kelly looked in the room Casey had been moved to, he was dressed in a hospital gown, he'd been cleaned up, and he looked like he was sleeping peacefully though Kelly doubted very much that that was the case. He stepped into the room and made his way over to the bed and looked down at the blonde lieutenant. Now the bruises on his face were plain as day, as were the hand marks on his neck and part of his chest. He glanced down and saw the purple band around the hospital bracelet they'd placed on him.

"What happened to you, Casey?" he quietly asked.

When Kelly looked up again, Casey's eyes were open and seemed to be staring up at him.

"Casey!" Severide whispered in relief.

Casey did not appear so relieved to finally be conscious, he grumbled and groaned and rubbed his eyes and muttered, "Oh my God...this didn't happen...you're not here."

"Casey."

"Go away, Severide," Casey told him as he pulled the sheet up higher on him.

"Casey, what happened?" Kelly asked him.

"I said go away," Casey replied as he turned on his side facing away from him.

"Casey, we've all been worried to death, what happened? _"_

" _Get out_!" Casey yelled at him, and started reaching for anything within his reach to chuck at Severide. "Get out! Get out! GET OOOOUUUUT!"

That was enough noise to bring everybody running, doctors, nurses _and_ hospital security, and finally made Severide back out of the room in shock and confusion.

"Go away! All of you _go away_!" Casey screamed at anybody who set foot in his room.

Severide was left standing outside the room without a clue what was going on, he felt completely lost.

"Come on, Kelly," Maggie guided him away from the room, "let Casey rest right now."

"W-what happened?" Kelly tried to put it all together.

"Just leave him be for now," Maggie told him, "when he calms down you can see him."

"Is he alright?" Kelly asked.

"Dr. Halstead's going to do everything he can for him."

"Is he gonna be alright?" Kelly reiterated.

"Try not to worry, go back to the waiting room, we'll come get you when there's an update," Maggie told him.

"Maggie, w-what about a rape kit? Can you do that so the cops can find out who did this?"

"Matt has to consent to it, otherwise there's nothing we can do," she said.

Kelly could still hear Casey screaming up the hall, he knew there was no way in hell Matt would consent to that.

"Nothing?" he asked.

"We have to respect the patient's wishes," she told him.

Kelly reluctantly took a couple steps, then stopped and looked back at her, "I just wanted to know what happened."

"I know, we're all wondering the same thing, when Casey feels up to talking about it, he will," Maggie said.

Kelly trudged along a couple more steps, then said to her, "Somebody ought to stay with him."

"I think he prefers being alone right now," Maggie replied.

"But if anything would happen..."

"He'll be closely monitored, don't worry," she assured him.

"But I gotta know what happened," Kelly told her, "He's been missing for 2 days, we all thought he was dead."

"I know," she nodded sympathetically, "But he needs to rest now."

Kelly reluctantly nodded, then headed towards the waiting room.


	2. Chapter 2

A couple hours later, Kelly poked his head in Casey's room and asked him, "How're you doing?" He had no idea if Casey had slept, but there hadn't been any outbursts since he ordered everyone out of the room, so that had to be a sign of improvement.

Casey shifted his attention from the ceiling over him to the man standing in the doorway and said shortly, "I'm fine, I want to go home."

"Did the doctors clear you?"

"I don't need them to clear me, I want to get out of here," Casey said as he pushed back the sheet.

Kelly stepped into the room. "I don't think that's a good idea, Casey."

"I don't give a damn what you think," Casey said as he hurriedly stood up, "I'm getting out of here!"

Casey let out a sudden yell as he moved away from the bed, and in that same instance Severide felt his heart jump in his throat when he saw blood on the bed. He ran over and grabbed Casey just as he started to sway, and his heart jumped back out of his throat and dropped off in his stomach when he realized where the blood had come from.

"Maggie!" he called as he turned around with the full weight of his friend in his arms. Casey was staggering against him and making a series of small incoherent sounds but no words were coming out.

Maggie came running and when she assessed the scene she called for a gurney and for Dr. Halstead. What happened next seemed to occur so quickly that Severide's head was spinning, he tried to ask what was going on but they were suddenly surrounded by orderlies and nurses and Casey was taken out of his arms and lifted onto the gurney, and he tried to fight against it, he struggled with everybody, but he was strapped down to the gurney as they started to wheel him out of the room. Severide tried to ask where Casey was being taken but his head felt like it was in a fog and everything had simultaneously sped up and slowed down all at the same time and nothing was making any sense. The last thing he saw before everybody disappeared down the hall was Casey trying to sit up on the gurney, desperately crying out to him as if for help, "Kelly! KELLY!"

But Severide felt like his feet had been glued to the floor where he stood, suddenly he didn't have the strength or energy to move, and he just stood there feeling dumbstruck by what had just taken place.

* * *

An orderly took the bloody sheets off Casey's bed and put new ones on, Severide stood leaning against the wall in a stupor, not having any idea where Casey had been taken or what was happening to him right now or even if he was going to be alright. It felt like he'd been standing around forever, finally he saw Maggie coming back, and he was already dreading the news.

"Maggie."

"They're going to be bringing him back shortly, Kelly," she told him, "he wouldn't stop fighting with the doctors so they sedated him, he's still out cold so you won't be able to talk to him yet."

"What happened?" Kelly asked.

"He needed stitches."

Kelly squeezed his eye shut, trying to shut out that mental image, "Oh my God."

"They'll need to stay in for about two weeks, since it's an internal surgery they used dissolvable stitches so he shouldn't need to come back to have them taken out."

"Small favors," Severide murmured, knowing in the back of his mind that any chance they'd had of the hospital doing a rape kit just went out the window, and feeling like they'd somehow let Matt down by letting that happen. "How long does he have to stay in the hospital?"

"He'll be monitored for any complications, if all goes well, they should be able to send him home in a couple days," Maggie told him.

Kelly looked past her and saw Casey being wheeled back to his room. "Oh God."

As the gurney passed by them, Kelly saw Casey was dead to the world, he hated to think they'd have to keep him sedated full time just to keep him calm. He watched as Casey was transferred back to the bed and covered up, then everybody left the room.

"Can I stay with him?" he asked Maggie.

"Just as long as Casey doesn't object," she told him. "If he starts screaming again you have to leave, he has to rest right now."

He nodded glumly, "I understand."

Kelly stood outside the room and watched Casey for a while. It didn't look like he'd be waking up anytime soon. Severide went into the room, pulled up a chair next to the bed, watched Casey while he slept, after a while he methodically stroked over the top of his head and quietly talked to him, hoping his voice would let Casey know where he was and that he wouldn't flashback to his attack. He didn't know how long he sat there like that with Casey, it felt like hours, but eventually he fell asleep.

* * *

When he woke up, he saw Casey sitting up in the bed and he also seemed to be slowly coming around, but he wasn't anymore grateful to see Kelly now than he had been before.

"Leave me alone, Kelly," he said.

"Why?" Severide had to know.

"I don't want to see anybody," Casey said as he turned over on his side and moaned.

"Careful, you got..." but Kelly knew Casey didn't need to be reminded of the stitches, he would be reminded every time he moved.

"Just go away, _please_ ," Casey begged him as he buried his face into his pillow.

"Casey, will you just talk to me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Casey didn't want to turn his whole body back around, so he settled for turning his head halfway back to look at him, "Do you have any idea how humiliating this is? Now everybody's gonna know!"

Severide was dumbstruck by his comment, but quickly recovered and said in return, "Casey the doctors here are trained professionals, they see this all the time, they know it wasn't your fault."

"Not them," Casey sounded near tears, "Everybody at 51!"

Severide wondered if Casey remembered anything from when he was at the hotel. "Casey, do you know who found you?"

"I don't want to know!" Casey covered his face with his hands and grumbled, "Don't tell me that, please don't tell me!"

Severide stood over the bed and gently pulled Casey's hands away from his face, "Casey look at me, please."

"I can't face _any_ of them again," Casey groaned.

"Casey _they_ know this wasn't your fault," Severide told him.

"Go away!" Casey turned his head away from him, "Please go away!"

Severide knew Maggie was on her way to escort him out, so he did as he was told, and he left for the time being, and just about bumped into Dr. Charles in the process.

"Well," the psychiatrist said, awkwardly breaking the ice, "all things considered, that didn't go as badly as it could've."

"Do you know what happened?" Kelly asked.

"I haven't been in to see him personally, if that's what you're asking," Dr. Charles told him, "but I have been brought in on the case. Dr. Halstead thought I might be able to help him, but it's pretty obvious he's not ready to open up yet."

"Will he be?" Kelly asked.

"I won't know that until I try talking to him," Daniel replied.

Kelly's eyes lit up with a faint hope, "Can you? Can you talk to him?"

"I'll let him calm down and I'll certainly try," Dr. Charles told him.

Severide felt like they were finally going to get somewhere. "Thank you."

"I can't promise anything, but I'll see what I can do," the psychiatrist said.

* * *

"So how's Casey doing, Severide?" Herrmann asked as everybody crowded around the waiting room for an update.

Kelly shook his head, "I don't know...he doesn't want to see anyone, he doesn't want to talk to anyone, he had...had to have stitches, it was a mess. Do the cops have any leads?"

"None that we've heard," Boden replied, "what're the doctors saying?"

Severide shrugged, "They said if nothing goes wrong, they'll send him home in a few days."

"What do they mean if nothing goes wrong?" Cruz asked, "Like what?"

"I don't have any idea," Kelly told them, "nobody's telling me much of anything."

"Have you actually talked to Casey?" Otis asked.

"I tried but, he's not talking to me," Severide shook his head. "Dr. Charles said he'd try taking a crack at him later."

"This whole thing is messed up," Mouch commented, "how the hell could this even happen to Casey?"

Severide opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but he remembered something he'd heard earlier.

"Maggie said he'd been hit in the back of the head, so he probably never saw it coming," Kelly realized.

"But who did it? And how'd he get to Casey?" Otis asked. "When we went off shift Casey said he was going home, so how'd his truck wind up under that bridge? It's five miles from his place, and seven miles in the other direction from the hotel where he wound up."

"Obviously whoever kidnapped him ditched the truck, figured nobody would find it," Kelly said.

"Yeah, but that meant he had to have a car ready wherever he ditched the truck," Otis said.

Cruz turned to him, "You mean he might've been working with someone?"

"Maybe he had a partner," Otis realized.

"That's enough," Boden spoke up. "The police are looking into the matter, they don't need our speculations, they will follow the facts."

"Yeah but good luck with that, the wiring in that hotel hasn't been new since Ford was president," Mouch pointed out, "the whole place was a loss, they can't get forensics from the hotel room, any record of who had that room would be gone too."

Something came to Otis, he stood up and told the others, "I gotta cut out, guys, I've got something I need to take care of."

"Okay, we'll keep ya posted," Herrmann said.

* * *

The hotel might've been a total loss, but Otis knew the manager got out unscathed, and with a little luck, he was able to get the name and home address of the manager, a guy in his 50s who looked like he'd been a used car salesman or a politician in a previous life, who was very curious why a firefighter was coming to see him. Otis decided to go with his usual charm and lie.

"We're assisting CPD in the investigation of what started the fire, and they are trying to track down everybody who was in the hotel at the time, since the fire spread to the top two floors, they want to know the names of the customers who were living in the 4th floor."

"And what makes you think I'd know that?"

"Because I don't think you want your neighbors watching you being hauled out of here in handcuffs for failure to comply and obstructing an official police investigation," Otis told him.

The man took that in and after a minute told Otis, "Business has been slow. Only two rooms were occupied at that time."

"Names?"

"David Donner, he'd just checked in a couple days ago, I think...oh God, I think he was the one they carried out dead. And then Richard Welker, he'd been staying for about a month, he paid on a weekly basis, all cash."

"I'm sure he did," Otis replied as he took out his phone and pulled up a picture of Casey, "Did you ever see _this_ man at the hotel?"

The manager looked at it and nodded, "Yeah, last Saturday night."

That was the first night off shift, about 12 hours before Herrmann first tried calling him and got no answer.

"Was he with Welker by chance?" Otis asked.

"Uh yeah, he was...guy was falling down drunk, Welker had to hold him up clear to the elevator. He told me to put him down for two for the night and paid the extra in cash."

"You're sure he was drunk?"

"Oh yeah, guy could barely talk, barely keep his eyes open, he looked about dead."

Otis grimly nodded, "I see. Did Welker check out?"

"No, but he was always coming and going, I think he left early that morning," the manager explained.

Otis nodded again and told him, "Thank you, I will be sure and let CPD know you've been most cooperative."

He turned and left, and his next stop _was_ at the 21st District to speak to one of the officers investigating what happened to Casey, and fill them in on what he'd found out, hoping it would be of some use to them.

* * *

Dr. Charles met Kelly in the hospital cafeteria later that day after he'd decided to try speaking with Casey. It was crowded but they managed to find an unoccupied table to sit at and talk.

"How'd it go?" he asked hopefully.

Dr. Charles sat at the table and told him, "Well, I've been doing this a long time, and I have a _lot_ of experience talking to patients' backs, so that was pretty much on par."

Severide groaned and lowered his head against the tabletop.

"However," Daniel felt a need to add, "he's the first person over the age of 7 I ever talked to who signaled the end of the conversation by pulling the covers up over his head."

Kelly groaned again and smacked himself in the forehead. Dr. Charles didn't seem to think the situation as hopeless as Severide did, and told him, "You have to realize that right now Matt's terrified, of everything: his attack, the fact he couldn't do anything to stop it, that everybody now knows what happened, how they're going to respond to it. Any way you look at it, the entire outlook on his life has become very frightening to Casey."

"What can I do to help him?" Kelly wanted to know.

"You want my professional opinion?" Daniel took off his glasses and looked him in the eyes, "Stay close by. Right now he's trying to drive everyone away so he doesn't have to deal with anybody's reactions, but soon he's going to need someone around he trusts."

"Is he going to be alright?" Severide asked.

"Are you asking physically or mentally?"

"Both."

Dr. Charles looked uncertain about that, "If he agrees to talk, we can start him on therapy while he's here, he'd have to continue seeing a therapist once he got discharged...but yes, I think in time he will be fine."

"How much time?" Kelly asked.

"Unfortunately nobody knows the answer to that one," Dr. Charles told him.


End file.
